Sources inform "Globes" that Nochi Dankner today paid NIS 32 million to six banks as part of the debt arrangement that he signed with them a year ago. Dankner has paid a total of NIS 74 million so far under the arrangement. His next payment, scheduled in two years, will be NIS 20 million, and NIS 60 million more is due to be paid two years after that.
One important party helping Dankner pay the banks is his father, Yitzhak Dankner, who is reputedly a very wealthy man. A lawyer associated with the debt arrangement said today that Dankner was planning on making all the debt arrangement payments in order and on time.
Dankner's private debts to six banks (Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF), Union Bank of Israel (TASE: UNON), and Credit Suiise) total NIS 480 million, consisting of loans to private companies Ganden and Tomahawk, through which he formerly controlled IDB. The two companies' debts to the banks are estimated at over NIS 800 million, but the sum in the debt arrangement is less than NIS 500 million - the amount of Dankner's personal guarantee for the debt.
The banks preferred a debt settlement to a bankruptcy proceeding, because they would have been able to get at most an amount in the tens of million shekels in such a proceeding, and would not have benefitted from a contribution from Dankner's father, as they did in the credit arrangement. Under the terms of the arrangement, Dankner will repay NIS 150 million within five years (about half of this amount has been paid over the past year).
While the rest of the debt has not been officially written off, its repayment will be according to Dankner's future income. Another source for repayment of Dankner's debt is from the sale of his house in Herzliya Pituah. Dankner and his wife moved from the house a year ago, and it has been up for sale since then. Dankner is managing the house's sale with the bank's permission.
Dankner is believed to be asking the NIS 45-50 million price set in a valuation of the house. Selling such a property is not easy, especially given the current slowdown in the luxury housing sector. In any case, Dankner has already moved out of the house, and media reports say that he is renting another house not far away.
Dankner was convicted of securities offenses, and was sentenced to a two-year prison term 18 months ago. He has appealed against his conviction, but the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the appeal only next April. Even if Dankner goes to prison, it will not affect the debt arrangement, which in any case depends mainly on money from his father.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2017
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